I'd always fancied an Ochills bivvy and never got round to it last year. There are plenty of spots that I knew would be good so it was just a matter of picking one.
So after a leisurely Saturday I held off leaving until about half seven in the evening. Temps were around 1 degree and the remains of the dusting of snow that fell on Friday lay in sheltered locations. As usual it seemed a bit strange departing into a cold night whilst everyone else was curled up in front of a warm TV screen. I followed a mix of back roads and trails to near Dollar and then began the climb up into the hills in earnest.
As soon as I passed the 200m mark the ground became frozen with a whopping 1/2" of snow lying. I was following a regularly used path which runs along one of a few passes through the Ochills from above Dollar to Glen Devon. It's typically a bit of a bog fest but largely frozen solid this evening. I was amused at all the bike tracks from earlier in the day when the ground must have thawed a bit as they regularly broke through the ice into the gloop below. I was on the fat bike so floated over everything. There are a few icy bits on this trail in these conditions but the dusting of snow meant there was plenty of grip.
My chosen site was just over the summit at around 300m. Its a spot I've passed many times and always meant to bivvy there. I got the tarp up sharpish and snuggled into my winter bag with a book, a pie and whisky. Tonight saw my first use of a full length mat. I've used a 2/3rds one for a number of years now and I'd decided to forgo TLS in favour of comfort. It must have worked as I slept like a log for 9 hrs straight. The morning was cold and misty....
There was hints of blue sky overhead so after a leisurely brekky I decided to do a loop up to 650m to see what was what. On the steady climb out of Glen Sherup I broke out of the mist into a clear blue sky. Mist lay in all the valley bottoms with the hills rising above them in the sun.
This is a long but steady climb and the going was easy thanks to the frozen ground and shallow snow depth. Even above the magic 500m mark, it wasn't much more than lower down. I'm on flat pedals at the moment in preparation for the Rovaniemi 150 that I'm (hopefully) doing in February. I've never really used flats for this kind of riding before so it was a bit of a learning curve. I kept waving feet in the air forgetting I was not firmly attached to the pedals but by the end of the ride I'd got the measure of them.
I finally topped out on Tarmangie Hill at 645m to see this view:
A full on cloud inversion over the Forth Valley, the Lomond hills poking up through the cloud to the east. Looking north there didn't seem to be much more snow on the hills above Crieff... hopefully more to come this week.
The descent was the usual hoot with plenty of sliding around thanks to my (worn out) Jumbo Jims at too high a pressure. By the time I'd dropped back into Muckhart the fog had cleared so had an easy pedal home for a late breakfast and lots of tea.
